Now Why Didn't I Think Of That?
If you have been surfing eConnect Email for a while, you might have noticed that we talk a lot about our tagging function. Tagging is not a new technology; it has been used widely, especially in the area of social networking. But tagging has never been integrated into an email marketing system like how eConnect Email has done it. Read on, and we’ll tell you why tagging is the new powerful tool for email marketing reporting. After you’re done, you might even say to yourself, “Now why didn’t I think of that!”-
Know Your Subscribers Interest
Tag your links in your campaigns to discover what your subscribers are interested in. How you choose to tag your links is entirely up to you – you could begin by tagging according to product and service categories or brand names. Once you get the hang of this, you'll be inventing tags that really work for you! We've included your tagging statistics in your reports so you can view them easily, and the figures are also available under each subscriber’s individual report. What's more, by looking at each subscriber’s top 5 tags, you can tell at a glance what topics, products or services your subscribers are interested in. -
Text vs. Image
Try assigning tags to your text and image links (e.g. “Text Links Columbia Coffee” and “Image Links Columbia Coffee”) to find out how your links are faring. Wait, you say. Don’t many email programs block images automatically? Yes they do, and we could probably assume that text links would be more popular as a result, although it would be great to get the actual numbers so you’re not wasting time on fancy graphics that no-one sees. Also, we’ve heard experts tell us time and again to specify alternative text for images to encourage downloads. Now you can test this theory when you run a new email campaign, by including ALT text with your images, tagging your image links, and comparing them with a previously tagged campaign that has images without ALT text. -
Above Or Below The Fold?
Too often, we hear experts telling us that links “above the fold” get better results than those “below the fold,” which begs the question, “Is anyone paying attention beyond the preview pane?” Sure, surveys have been done, but wouldn’t it be great to test this theory on the people who really matter to you? Now you can, without breaking a sweat. Simply assign a tag to content that falls within the preview pane and another to the rest of your content (e.g. “Above The Fold Columbian Coffee” and “Below The Fold Brazilian Coffee”). Be sure to tag all your campaigns the same way, even campaigns that are six months old and beyond. You’ll get the answers you're looking for. -
Product Offers vs. Information
What’s the best way to your customer's hearts – a good bargain, or some plain ol’ advice (with a dose of product information)? Assign a tag to direct product offers and another to informative articles with product mentions (just like this article). This way, you can start to learn which approach you should take with your subscribers. Not everyone will jump at your FREE! or 50% discount offers. But here’s what we like to say at eConnect Email: You won’t know it until you tag it. -
Brands & Sponsors
If your email contains links to several in-house brands or product categories, you can tag them to find out which brands or products are winning in the popularity stakes. If your email contains links to partner or advertiser sites, tag these links to find out if your campaign is working hard for its money by driving traffic to other sites. -
Create Smart Lists From Tags
We’ve integrated tagging into our Smart Lists, allowing you to easily generate lists of subscribers who are interested in certain tags. Say you’re a coffee marketer – you could enter “Brazilian Coffee” into a search field and get a list of subscribers who’ve displayed interest in Brazilian coffee by clicking on related links. Life as an e-marketer doesn’t get much better than this.
Here’s where we can almost hear some of you thinking, “Great! I can’t wait to run out and tag my next campaign.” But get this: Tags are not restricted to single campaigns; you can put similar tags across as many campaigns as you like (even campaigns that have been sent already) and view stats for a series of campaigns. What this means is that the reports you generate are based on information and trends over a period of time, and not just a single occurrence. Think of it as repeating a survey over and over again with the same target audience – you’ll get results so accurate you can practically predict their next move.
-
Get updated on eConnect Email, news on email marketing, tips & tricks and more, once a month.
eConnect News
-
We talk about email marketing trends, design tips, best practices and eConnect Email product updates.
eConnect Blog
